Designing personal informatics to support setting and changing health goals

Personal informatics (PI) tools often struggle to support people as their health goals change. As individuals move through different life stages and transitions, their needs, priorities, and motivations change, yet PI systems rarely adapt accordingly. When goals become misaligned with people’s values, contexts, or abilities, they can diminish motivation, reinforce negative mindsets, and ultimately contribute to the abandonment of both tools and health pursuits. This dissertation investigates how PI tools can better support changing health goals through evaluations of commercial tools, literature review, ethnographic studies, and speculative design.

The first phase establishes the landscape of PI and goal setting. A scoping review of Human–Computer Interaction literature (N=51) synthesizes six design implications, pointing towards ways in which tools can support adaptability and reframing to create PI goals which better fit in people’s lives, motivations, and identities. Complementing this, an analysis of ten popular tracking apps highlights limited support for reflection during goal setting, revealing a disconnect between commercial practices and research recommendations.

Phase 2 looked to understand how people use and are supported by personal informatics during goal change through a survey (N=80) and interview (N=10) study (Chapter 4). Findings map the actors and factors shaping goal change and show that, while PI tools support reflection and planning, they remain disconnected from many influences that meaningfully shape people’s health journeys. Social circles emerged as surprisingly central to goal change, yet PI tools largely treat goal pursuit as an individual experience

The final phase explores how PI could better integrate social support. Goal Change Factor Cards for Social Circles translate findings into actionable design resources. A speculative design study, including workshops (N=14) and an online survey of speculative video provocations (N=64), surfaces tensions around judgement, privacy, and alignment with personal needs, while also revealing interest in socially supported goal setting to support commitment, meaning, and deepening relationships.

This dissertation argues for personal informatics that incorporate self-compassion, flexibility, and transparency. By embracing diverse perspectives on health and designing for changing goals, PI tools can better support meaningful, long-term engagement with personal health and wellbeing.